I don't think that the current popularity of 1.d4 is due to playing against computers. The main reason it is currently more popular than 1.e4 at the highest levels is that Black has found a very effective way to counter 1.e4 (the Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez) that makes it difficult for White to achieve more than a draw. This high-level popularity then trickles down to lower levels.
It is definitely true that the style of play has changed somewhat due to computer engines, but it's not so much the result of playing against computers (top players generally don't find that very rewarding), but of analyzing with computers. You can play through a game or an opening and explore variations, with the computer constantly telling you what it thinks the best moves are and who is winning by how much. As a result, players become trained to evaluate positions closer to the way a computer would. One example is that computers don't mind grabbing material and defending an unpleasant position for a long time if they don't think that the opponent can break through. This has given players confidence to be more materialistic than they were in the past.
This also reminds me of a Martin Amos novel "the information" (based on the publication date, I'd guess I read it around the same time I was learning the stonewall attack). There's a section where one writer is determined to defeat his friend at everything (tennis, chess, a few others), and he hires people to help him.
The chess teacher, I believe, teaches him something that sounds like the stonewall defense, and reflects that it almost feels like he's teaching someone to cheat at chess rather than play it. The writer isn't cheating of course (at all), but I think it feels this way to the chess master/instructor because he's learning the stonewall because he doesn't really want to engage in the actual competition. He wants to sidestep it in order to win.
I'm not trying to knock the queen's pawn defense, more the way I (and this writer) were trying to use it. I'm sure queen's pawn openings can be very creative. But in my case, this is why I considered my buddy's play of the kind's pawn a "satisfying ending." I was (to use the tennis analogy) using a pusher's approach. When you watch two people playing a game, and it's clear that one person is trying to win by shutting down the game rather than really playing it, you tend to root for the person going for creative play.
I don't think that the current popularity of 1.d4 is due to playing against computers. The main reason it is currently more popular than 1.e4 at the highest levels is that Black has found a very effective way to counter 1.e4 (the Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez) that makes it difficult for White to achieve more than a draw. This high-level popularity then trickles down to lower levels.
It is definitely true that the style of play has changed somewhat due to computer engines, but it's not so much the result of playing against computers (top players generally don't find that very rewarding), but of analyzing with computers. You can play through a game or an opening and explore variations, with the computer constantly telling you what it thinks the best moves are and who is winning by how much. As a result, players become trained to evaluate positions closer to the way a computer would. One example is that computers don't mind grabbing material and defending an unpleasant position for a long time if they don't think that the opponent can break through. This has given players confidence to be more materialistic than they were in the past.